Falling Upward
We are not alone on this journey.
It seems that, to make progress, we have to necessarily see our inability to make progress on our own. As Vaiṣṇavas, two of our most essential scriptures involve major upheavals in life and the sincere pleading for enlightenment. Arjuna had a mental breakdown on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra before Kṛṣṇa imparted the teachings we read in Bhagavad-gītā. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was faced with death when he sincerely inquired from Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, "What is the duty of a dying man?". From this we get our version of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Here's a beautiful passage from Chapter 5 of the Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr's amazing book Falling Upward:
Sooner or later, if you are on any classic “spiritual schedule,” some event, person, death, idea, or relationship will enter your life that you simply cannot deal with, using your present skill set, your acquired knowledge, or your strong willpower. Spiritually speaking, you will be, you must be, led to the edge of your own private resources. At that point you will stumble over a necessary stumbling stone, as Isaiah calls it; or to state it in our language here, you will and you must “lose” at something. This is the only way that Life-Fate-God-Grace-Mystery can get you to change, let go of your egocentric preoccupations, and go on the further and larger journey. I wish I could say this was not true, but it is darn near absolute in the spiritual literature of the world.
There is no practical or compelling reason to leave one's present comfort zone in life. Why should you or would you? Frankly, none of us do unless and until we have to. The invitation probably has to be unexpected and unsought. If we seek spiritual heroism ourselves, the old ego is just back in control under a new name. There would not really be any change at all, but only disguise. Just bogus “self-improvement” on our own terms.
Any attempt to engineer or plan your own enlightenment is doomed to failure because it will be ego driven. You will see only what you have already decided to look for, and you cannot see what you are not ready or told to look for. So failure and humiliation force you to look where you never would otherwise. What an enigma! Self-help courses of any type, including this one if it is one, will help you only if they teach you to pay attention to life itself. “God comes to you disguised as your life,” as my friend Paula D'Arcy so wisely says.
So we must stumble and fall, I am sorry to say. And that does not mean reading about falling, as you are doing here. We must actually be out of the driver's seat for a while, or we will never learn how to give up control to the Real Guide. It is the necessary pattern.
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These words were not generated with or augmented by artificial intelligence; just “flawsome” human thoughts here … with, of course, due homage to The Algorithm that abides over us all.
I find myself stuck in freeze mode, horrified by the complexity and uncertainty of life.